DRAKE ANDERSON
DA
Drake Anderson is the ordinary man assigned to missions full of people who are anything but ordinary. A veteran mercenary working with the British Library, he has no paper manipulation, phasing ability or reconstructed historical powers. He has guns, military experience, good instincts and an understandable desire to survive long enough to see his daughter again.
That makes Drake useful beyond providing firepower. He gives the OVA a human scale. When Yomiko and Nancy can perform impossible feats, Drake still has to approach the I-jin like physical opponents who can shoot back and kill him.
He nevertheless holds his own. During the assault on the I-jin fortress, Drake fights through enemies that were engineered to be superhuman and helps keep the operation alive while Yomiko pursues Nancy and the rocket. He is practical without being cynical, and much more protective of the people around him than his gruff manner initially suggests.
That makes Drake useful beyond providing firepower. He gives the OVA a human scale. When Yomiko and Nancy can perform impossible feats, Drake still has to approach the I-jin like physical opponents who can shoot back and kill him.
He nevertheless holds his own. During the assault on the I-jin fortress, Drake fights through enemies that were engineered to be superhuman and helps keep the operation alive while Yomiko pursues Nancy and the rocket. He is practical without being cynical, and much more protective of the people around him than his gruff manner initially suggests.
DRAKE THROUGH THE ARCHIVE //
R.O.D OVA MASTER COMBAT LEDGER //
Open page →Episode 3 · I-jin Fortress · The Ordinary Man Gets His Fight
While Yomiko pushes deeper into the I-jin fortress, Drake is left fighting enemies built to operate far beyond ordinary human limits.
The Breakdown
Jean-Henri Fabre returns after surviving his apparent defeat in Jinbocho, now fully matured and still armed with the insect abilities that made him dangerous the first time.
Stephen Wilcox is a different kind of opponent. He is physically integrated into the fortress machinery, making the engine room and its mechanisms part of the fight rather than confronting Drake as another conventional superhuman combatant.
Drake has none of the abilities surrounding him. He survives with firearms, experience and the willingness to keep fighting until the machinery around Fabre and Wilcox comes apart. The engine-room destruction kills both I-jin and helps bring the fortress down.
WHY IT MATTERS:
Drake spends the OVA surrounded by people who phase through walls, control paper, ride clouds and return historical figures from the dead. Episode 3 finally gives him the corresponding payoff. He does not acquire a supernatural answer to any of it. He remains a soldier, and that is enough.
Stephen Wilcox is a different kind of opponent. He is physically integrated into the fortress machinery, making the engine room and its mechanisms part of the fight rather than confronting Drake as another conventional superhuman combatant.
Drake has none of the abilities surrounding him. He survives with firearms, experience and the willingness to keep fighting until the machinery around Fabre and Wilcox comes apart. The engine-room destruction kills both I-jin and helps bring the fortress down.
WHY IT MATTERS:
Drake spends the OVA surrounded by people who phase through walls, control paper, ride clouds and return historical figures from the dead. Episode 3 finally gives him the corresponding payoff. He does not acquire a supernatural answer to any of it. He remains a soldier, and that is enough.
BRITISH LIBRARY & PAPER MAGIC //
Open page →The British Library Special Operations Division
Open →Rare Books · Secret Agents · Very Unusual Library Work
The British Library Special Operations Division treats rare books as matters of international security. Joker directs the organization from London while agents such as Yomiko Readman, Nancy Makuhari and Drake Anderson are sent into the field when a manuscript becomes dangerous enough to justify espionage, military support or both.
R.O.D never acts embarrassed by the premise. A stolen book can trigger the same response another spy story would reserve for a stolen weapon, and the agents pursuing it may include a woman who controls paper and another who walks through walls.
R.O.D never acts embarrassed by the premise. A stolen book can trigger the same response another spy story would reserve for a stolen weapon, and the agents pursuing it may include a woman who controls paper and another who walks through walls.
Why it matters
The British Library gives the OVA its entire tone. Books are not sitting safely behind glass while the action happens elsewhere. Books are the reason the spies, historical clones and governments are fighting in the first place.
